Conservation of Nickel Coinage

Does this coin look familiar? . . . It should. We discussed it in December here on CT back in December 2021.

Despite the spotting behind the Indian’s head and above the bison’s back, it’s the scarce 2 feather variety, and I really liked the coin a lot and paid well for it. I knew I’d be taking my chances, but asked around about conserving nickel, while carefully evaluating the answers to determine if it was even a realistic expectation.

I was particularly fond of the streaky light woodgrain toning on the obverse, and didn’t really want to surrender that in order to neutralize the spotting. Most everyone seemed to think I’d have to part with the toning to get the coin successfully conserved.

I should say, this is not an exercise for the impatient among us, and that’s speaking for both the conservator and the owner of the coin. For the conservator to do this work on a publicized fixed schedule is unreasonable. It would be similarly unreasonable for a service to repeatedly delay return of the conserved coin or, worse, to deliver a coin poorly conserved because the job was rushed. I can only imagine the state of mind necessary to do this kind of work so meticulously at such a small scale.

Well, several months ago I pretty much gave up on keeping the toning, and found someone to conserve the coin for me.

Unlike those who rush through their work to maximize the revenue therefrom, this conservator’s passion for properly preserving the coin is obviously foremost in his mind. Not only did he remove the spots of concern, but he managed to preserve the toning i didn't want to give up!

The conservator was none other than our own Insider. Thanks very much @Insider. Not said to demean others, but you are an artist in an industry full of amateurs.

You can see the results below.

 

3 Feathers . . .



2 Feathers . . .



Note the difference behind the nape of the Indian's neck. On mine most of the third feather was effaced from the die, but some still shows.

 

The differences between the photos were not lost on me @CoinCorgi , and they were not the result of any intentional effort at concealing the spots of old. The coin is now in an ICG holder, whereas it was raw when I took the original photos, and my latter shots were almost certainly influenced by the holder, as is usually the case.




I can attempt to post-process out some of the brightness, or even shoot the photos again, but it's late, and I'm off to sleep. Rest assured, the coin does indeed look as much better as the present photos imply.